1859. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



269 



and how to prevent the same again, I should be 

 thankful. N. G. 



Taunton, Mass., 1859. 



Remarks. — Sow the land with spring wheat 

 and grass seed ; or sow only one bushel and a 

 ha(f of oa.t& to the acre, and your grass seed will 

 probably take well and grow well. Can give no 

 advice about the grape vine. 



SOWING SEEDS FOR BUCKTHORN HEDGE. 



Will you, or some of the readers of your val- 

 uable paper, inform me which is the best season 

 of the year for sowing the seed for a buckthorn 

 hedge ? Also, the best manner of sowing ? 



Pittsfield, Mass., 1859. Emory H. Nash. 



Remarks. — We have not had occasion to sow 

 the seed of buckthorn, nor can we find any ac- 

 count of the process in the books. It is seldom 

 done except by nurserymen, because a hedge is 

 60 much more readily obtained from the plants. 

 We should sow the seeds in a fine, mellow, gar- 

 den soil in May, as most other seeds are sown. 



SETTING FRUIT TREES— CLOTH FOR HAY-CAPS. 



I wish to be informed as to the best mode of 

 preparing the ground for setting fruit trees. 

 Also, is it best to set them in the spring or fall ? 

 Also, will cotton cloth used for hay caps, shed 

 rain without any preparation of oil or paint of 

 any kind? A New Subscriber. 



Ilatjield, April 7, 1859. 



Remarks. — The soil, to be in the most favora- 

 ble condition for fruit trees, ought to be under- 

 drained ; then plow, pulverize and manure as you 

 would to obtain sixty bushels of corn per acre. 

 Dig the holes five or six feet across, and twelve 

 to eighteen inches deep ; do this several days be- 

 fore you set the trees. Holes prepared in this lib- 

 eral manner, will give you room enough to place 

 the roots in their natural position, and will be 

 actually cheaper in the end, than to dig them 

 three feet in diameter. Every good tree, taken 

 up and reset, carefully, will live and grow, wheth- 

 er set in fall or spring. We set them at either 

 of these seasons, as is most convenient. Good 

 twilled cotton cloth, costing about nine cents a 

 yard, will shed the rain from a well made up 

 haycock during a storm of three days and nights. 

 They are better without paint or varnish, or any 

 other preparation. 



WARTS ON PLUM TREES. 



In answer to an inquiry of "A. R. S." about 

 plum trees, I would say that several years' expe- 

 rience has taught me, that a sure way of prevent- 

 ing warts or hard protuberar'ies from growing 

 on plum trees, is to place chicken coops under 

 them as early in the spring as possible, or before 

 the trees blossom. The chickens will look out 

 for everything that causes warts. i. f. 



Pittsfield, Mass., April 6, 1859. 



RAISING CALVES. 



I never let the calves suck more than twice, 

 without the cow's bag is swollen very much. 

 They will learn to drink milk as soon as they get 

 a little hungry. After they have learned to 

 drink well, give them some meal or fine hay, and 

 they will soon eat like cows. I keep fourteen 

 head of cattle, and I raised them all (except one) 

 in this way. One of my heifers, which calved a 

 year ago, in October, when turned out to grass 

 in June, gave fourteen quarts of milk a day quite 

 a number of days. Another, which I sold two 

 years since to a man in this town, has given over 

 nineteen quarts per day. She is owned by a 

 man in this town now, who would not take $100 

 for her. A Yankee Farmer. 



Westboro', April, 1859. 



WELL AND AQUEDUCT WATER. 



I have a well which, in a dry season, afi'ords 

 water much cooler and better for some purposes 

 than that from the aqueduct. In a wet time it 

 fills up so full that it is but little cooler than that 

 of the aqueduct. The well is eight rods from the 

 house, twenty feet deep, with descending ground 

 to the house. 



I wish to inquire if by inserting a pipe to the 

 bottom of the well, I can with a pump take wa- 

 ter into the buildings of uniform coldness, or 

 will it meet with the same variations it does 

 when taken with the "old-fashioned bucket ?" 



Waitsfidd, Vt. S. P. Joslin. 



ROBINS. 



An anonymous correspondent of the Farmer, 

 in a short note referring to robins, says, "1 have 

 just met in Vol. X. of the Farmer, p. 306, a well 

 written article on this subject, which I refer to 

 with the greatest pleasure, as it controverts the 

 notions of N. Page, Jr., put forth with adroitness 

 in the lately-published transactions of the Essex 

 Society." 



If friend "Star" will explain clearly which 

 statement of mine, or assertion, or "notion," if 

 he pleases, is successfully controverted by any- 

 thing in the article alluded to, I will readily, as 

 in duty bound, retract. N. PAGE, Jr. 



Danversport, April, 1859. 



CHANGING SEED POTATOES. 



A neighbor, who has the very desirable habit 

 of pocketing several hundred dollars annually 

 from the proceeds of his ])otato crop, says he in- 

 creases the yield from fifty to one hundred per 

 cent, by procuring seed potatoes, which grew on 

 an entirely different soil fifteen or twenty miles 

 distant. Fifty per cent, on the potato crop of 

 the whole State, I imagine, would be more in a 

 single year than our proportion of the Massa- 

 chusetts claim, about which so much ink and 

 breath have been spent in the last forty years. 



Lancaster, Mass., 1859. H. Lincoln. 



THE SEASON — CANKER WORM. 

 The month of March gave eight inches of rain, 

 and the first half of April promises near as much 

 in proportion. What it falls short in rain is 

 made up of cold winds, indicating large,banks of 

 snow to the North. On all sides the winter is 



